More than a third of UK employees daydream about a career in the music industry while sitting at their desks, according to new research.

Nearly half of the 2,000 people surveyed dream about performing on stage, being a roadie, writing hit songs, or talent spotting the next big pop star...

The research, (commissioned by music education group BIMM), found that 28 per-cent of women have fleeting thoughts of having a musical career, while most people voted the iconic rock group Queen as the band they would most like to perform with on stage, (with Freddie Mercury being a bigger draw than The Arctic Monkeys, Oasis and The Rolling Stones combined).

Rather than fame being the reason for pursuing a career in the music industry, 43 per-cent of people surveyed said that they simply wanted to follow their passion. While 21 per-cent said they did not see music as a proper job, 13 per-cent lacked access to relevant careers advice and seven per-cent said they had been put off any kind of music career by a careers adviser.

Only, 23 per-cent of men said they would pursue a job in the music industry now if they had the opportunity to start their careers all over again.

Vaseema Hamilton, BIMM principal, said: "At BIMM, we want to encourage people to believe in themselves and to believe that their creative and vocational dreams of working in the music industry don't need to remain unfulfilled."

Back in 2009 I did a series on Making Money in the Music Business Playing Guitar...